The 4,700-square foot interactive exhibit had a recent "soft launch" at Epcot in Florida. Sponsored by the insurance companies Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the attraction allows children to follow two slim and fit cartoon characters, Will Power and Callie Stenics. Visitors could shoot virtual hotdogs with broccoli and enter a dance contest against one of the Bad Habits, a bulbous character called Lead Bottom who evidently got that way from lack of exercise.

"Because after all, the kids with obesity are obviously just gluttonous and lazy and they probably lie around and eat junk food all day, right? That’s what Disney thinks." Freedhoff wrote, adding Dance, Dance Revolution and broccoli was a simplistic answer to a complex issue.

"I was an obese kid and if that type of exhibit had been around when I was growing up, it wouldn’t have stopped me from eating. More likely it would have made me feel so bad about myself that I would have shovelled food in to make myself feel better," said one Weighty Matters reader.

Others disagreed. One urged Freedhoff to "get off your politically correct soap box. Obesity is a real problem in this country. The majority of obese kids in America are in this shape due to poor eating habits and lack of exercise."

Two days later, the Bad Habits attraction had been shuttered and Disney said it was being retooled. Spokeswoman Kathleen Prihoda told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "That’s why we have a soft opening. So we can open it up to others and listen. We’ve heard the feedback."

In an interview this week, Freedhoff said the most disturbing things about Habit Heroes was that both vilified obesity and dumbed down the issue. Weight bias and bullying are part of the problem and "tough love" interventions have not been proven to be successful.

"We’re not going to exercise our way out of this. It’s an intake problem," said Freedhoff, who blames a food environment that promoted chocolate milk as a health food.

"If anyone thinks a 10-minute walk-through attraction at Disney will have an impact on childhood obesity, they’re wrong," he said.

"I doubt there’s a kid in North America who doesn’t know that you need to exercise and eat good food. I don’t think that kids have had a big loss of willpower in the last few decades."

And he feels its disingenuous for Disney to say that it wants to help prevent obesity. Last year, he blogged about a weeklong trip to Disney and noted that his party of seven, which included a baby, was served a breakfast that included 26 strips of bacon, a bunch of sausages and a potato dish made with cream and cheese.

"I don’t buy that Disney cares about childhood obesity. If they did, they wouldn’t licence their products for Happy Meals."

Freedhoff was interviewed by journalists from a dozen media organizations about the Bad Habits flap, including the Los Angeles Times and the Reuters news service.

He combs news services for his subject matter to find material for his blog — the Bad Habits blog post originated with an article from the Orlando Sentinel. The blog post got 553 Facebook shares, was re-tweeted 179 times and started other people blogging about it. But Freedhoff said he doesn’t think his blog shut down the Bad Habits.

"Maybe it’s coincidental timing, but the world we live in has become so interconnected," says Freedhoff, who bills himself in Weighty Matters as a "certifiably cynical realist." In 2010, he gave a speech to the student meeting of the Canadian Obesity Network in 2010 called "Adventures of a Loudmouth."

Doctors have to advocate for their patients. This is just another kind of advocacy, said Freedhoff, who has written 1,700 posts since he started the blog in 2005, writing more than a million words.

"The MD behind our names helps us to be heard. If there is an injustice, I think there’s an obligation to speak up."

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